U.S. & World

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) ― A Russian-built rocket carrying the world's first female space tourist lifted off Monday on a flight to the international space station.

Anousheh Ansari, an Iranian-American telecommunications entrepreneur, was accompanied by a U.S.-Russian crew on the Soyuz TMA-9 capsule.

Ansari paid a reported $20 million to become the fourth private astronaut to take a trip on a Russian spacecraft and visit the station.

"I'm just so happy to be here," she said ebulliently as she entered the rocket Monday, watched by about a dozen relatives including her husband and mother.

The Soyuz TMA-9 capsule took off less than a day after the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis pulled away from the orbiting station and began its journey Earthward.

Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and U.S. astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria were to join German astronaut Thomas Reiter on the station just over 48 hours after liftoff.

Ansari, 40, was due to return to Earth on Sept. 29, along with cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov and astronaut Jeffrey Williams, who have been on the station since April.

On Sunday, Ansari defended the role of "space flight participants" and said she viewed herself as an ambassador for attracting private investment to space flight.

"In order to make great leaps in space exploration ... private companies and the government need to work together," she said at a news conference at the Russian cosmodrome in Baikonur.

Ansari gave $10 million in 2002 for the naming rights to a prize awarded to the first successful privately financed manned trip into space.

Astronaut Lopez-Alegria said just a few years ago he was skeptical of private tourists. But he said now it was clear that the Russian space program needed such investment -- and that without the Russian space program, the U.S. space program would suffer.

"If that's the correct solution... then not only is it good from the standpoint of supporting the Russian space program, but it's good for us as well," he said. Ansari's presence in space "is a great dream and a great hope not just for our country but for countries all around the world."

Cosmonaut Tyurin called Ansari "very professional" and said he felt like they had worked together for a decade.

Ansari said she expected seeing Earth from space would alter her view of the planet.

"You'll see how small and how fragile the Earth is compared to the rest of the universe," she said. "It will give us a better sense of responsibility."

Ansari also explained her decision earlier to wear a patch with the colors of the Iranian flag -- along with a U.S. flag -- on a jumpsuit during training in Moscow. Her blue jumpsuit Sunday featured an American flag on the left shoulder, along with other patches, but no Iranian colors.

"I wasn't trying to make a political statement, just a personal statement," she said. In Iran, where she lived until she was a teenager, "people will see someone born in Iran flying into space."

Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria are to join Reiter as the construction -- and traffic -- at the space station enters an almost unprecedented phase of activity. In the four days following the departure of the Atlantis, the station's current crew will shift a Progress supply ship to a different docking port to make way for the Soyuz; Atlantis will land back on Earth; and the Soyuz will dock at the station.

While at the station, Atlantis crew members oversaw a flurry of projects, including the installation of a 17 1/2-ton, $372 million addition consisting of two solar panel wings that will eventually provide a quarter of the station's power when completed by 2010.

During the six-month tenure of Tyurin and Lopez-Alegria, four space walks are planned, with as many as three to be conducted in January to help set up the station's permanent cooling system. Another will take place earlier to retrieve and install experiments on the station's exterior, U.S. officials said.

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